PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Windows PCs & Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: Jaminxz on March 16, 2004, 23:26
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Firstly hey dudes!!! i'm the newbie,hows it going.
Anyway I have a really annoying problem with my newish pc. I've played loads of games successfullyon my pc, but with Unreal tournament and deus ex i have experienced problems with the sound, where the sound is sort of allright, then it goes dead scratchy and distorted then it'ss go ok again an so fourth. All y other games,newer ones have perfect sound so i don't understand this. Firstly i though my master volume was a bit high,turned it down and still didn't fix it,then i thought there might have been a hardware conflict but there wasn't.I've also tried changing the sound frequency but this didn't help,the only other thing i can think of is that my Samsung sm-2200 speakers arn't good enough, find this hard to believe as they're only a few months old. I would really aprechiate help as it is doing my nut in!!!
Cheers guys,
Ben
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Hi and :welcome: Ben.
Can you tell us which OS and which sound card you are using please.
Have you tried going into the audio properties and reducing the hardware acceleration and/or sample rate in the advanced settings of your playback device ?
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Hi Ben!
Much more importantly than your sound problem, you have the honour of being our 300th Active Member!
:welldone: ;D ;D
By the way, do the games you're having trouble with have 5.1 sound, and are your speakers / sound card compatible with that?
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wooooHoooooooooothe 300th member!!! I got really lucky!! ;D
Right cheers for paying attention, firstly I am using xp (I only just got it and i'm not impressed!!! but that's going off topic :P ). My sound card is Nvidia n force. I think my card is 5:1 compatible not sure bout speakers, but i turned off for playing games though.
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Hi Ben :welcome: and congrats on being our 300th active member (no prize sorry ;) :( )
What processor do you have in your system? It may be that the CPU isn't fast enough to cope with running the screen and the sound card at the same time (although I just read your latest post whilst writing this - if you have an nForce your CPU is likely to be well up to the job :) )
Have you tried updating your sound card drivers?
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I know there was an issue with Unreal Tournament when I tried that out... it has something to do with the EAX sound.
I'll be ~~$£%ed if I can remember how to fix it, but I bet thats the problem.... let me have a little look....
here's some material for you:
http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/features/faqs/unreal.html
http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=25&threadid=49285
Basically, unreal can be fixed in a patch, not sure on the other one, but I bet the issue is the same....
happy hunting.
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Some patches here you could try:
http://eax.creative.com/eagle/unreal/
http://www.planetunreal.com/ut2003/patch/
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Right guy i apprechiate all your help, none of it helps though :o !!
I looked into the EAX thing buti don't think it's relevant,that's more for improvment rarther than error fixing. To answer the previous question i have a amd2700+,which i think i'm right in saying should be able to handle the processing of sound?? i also have 512ddr ram, this should be more than enough to handle 16 bit sound right???
I also tried putting the hardware acceleration to full and none,and the same with the sample rate but with no joy.
I hate to sound like a whiner,but if anybody could suggest or think of what the problem is i'd be truely grateful,
Cheers,
Ben
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Ben, you need to reduce acceleration normally to resolve problems not increase it.
Try it set lower :)
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Deus Ex uses the Unreal engine so it would seem likely the problems are related to that.
http://www.gamingforums.com/showthread.php?t=63089 (http://www.gamingforums.com/showthread.php?t=63089)
Seems to indicate that it's a common problem with NForce motherboards - have you tried changing the sound settings to 2 speakers instead of 5.1?
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i use a nforce 2 mobo with an AMD 2600 chip and 512 ram and have no problems.
The sound is onboard and is AC 97, but you must set it up as a 5.1 or it will be awfull. Assuming you have a 5.1 speaker set.
Good luck, they are a pain in the rear end. :(
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When I was playing unreal, my sound was onboard, nothing special BUT I STILL HAD THAT PROBLEM.
The EAX patch (even though I didn't have an EAX soundcard) sorted the issue.
I think the patches I got were specific to the GAME, and not the sound card (since mine was onboard), so don't dismiss the patches until you have at least tried em without success....
Your hardware setup looks sound on paper (errr, on screen), but of course faulty parts/bad drivers can always mess up the system.
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Guess what guys!!!!! I tried the patches and.......it still doesn't work right!!!
Ah god,unless anyone can think of something else, i'm gonna have to ring the good people at tiny,which cost's abou £1.50 a bloody minute!!!
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The only other thing I can suggest is a faulty disc? :-\
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I doubt it's the disk as it happens with the both games. Well cheersfor being helpful dudes, just guess i'll have to phone timenow :( .
Thanks again,
Ben
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I severely doubt that they will be able to help with this problem, but its your cash :P
Try updating your mainboard drivers too... if its VIA, grab the hyperion drivers.
The mainboard drivers assist in the data flow from one component to another (ie CPU to soundcard).
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OK how could i do that?
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Get the Hyperon ones from the top of this page :
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2
Only do this if your motherboard has VIA chipsets on it though :)
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Ok i don't get what's goin on here,(I Know i sound dumb!!!)
What drivers are they ? sound?
How do i find about the chipset thing??
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Theyre updated drivers for your motherboard to improve all round performance and correct any problems and/or errors like you are having.
If you look at your motherboard you should be able to see at least one large chip usally near the battery with VIA written on it, the other one with it on at the top end of the mobo is often covered by cooling fins so you may not see it written there.
If you can tell us which motherboard you have then we can tell you for certain whether it has VIA chips or not :)
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A chipset is like traffic lights for data flow (between CPU and GFX for example).
The chipset drivers make sure that the traffic flow is perfect, and there are no traffic jams.
I love the traffic light analogy... :o
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How can i find out what motherboard i have without opening my pc??
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Try Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html), or AIDA32 (http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-download.php). They might tell you. :)
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is it this i should be looking at
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6777
Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 10/14/2003
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Yeah, that's the make and model of your motherboard, and here's some more info on it:
http://www.e4allinc.info/dir1/motherboards/socketa/msi6777.htm
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Unfortunately it hasnt got VIA chipsets so the Via Hyperion drivers arent suitable :(
You could try the Realtek® Avance ALC AC'97 Audio Drivers Win9x/2k alc53.zip 5.10.0.5250 16.8MB
From :http://www.e4allinc.info/dir1/motherboards/socketa/msi6777_downloads.htm (http://www.e4allinc.info/dir1/motherboards/socketa/msi6777_downloads.htm)
And possibly Nvidia nForce2 System Driver
WinXP/2K nForce_3.13_WinXP2K_WHQL_english.exe 3.13 (Release date 11.03.03) 12.9MB
From the same page :)
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which one would you be more optomistic about working???
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Seeing as its an audio problem I would try the AC 97 one first :)
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right i've just started to download the ac 97 drivers and i read the notice and i'm really paranoid about my system being renderd inoprative!! should i really install them?? it won't break my pc will it??
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No the warning notice was for the BIOS update, drivers should not carry any risk, especially as we have identified that they are the correct ones for your mobo :)
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woooohoooooooooo!!! it worked!!!
Thanks alot sandra!
i hope it works for good now!!